Cymraeg at St Mary's

St Mary's is an English-medium school but Welsh is used in some way in every lesson of every day. We are proud of our heritage and our locality.

Your child may tell you that they have been the "Helpwr Heddiw" (Today's Helper). If this is the case, they will have helped the rest of the class ask and answer questions in Welsh and they may have collated lunch orders or led children's Welsh drills each morning. All children are encouraged to use simple Welsh in and out of lessons, all over school.

As well as learning to speak Welsh, we learn about Welsh history and geography and about our customs too.

Eisteddfodau 2025

This year, we had two separate Eisteddfod competitions. We had our “performance” Eisteddfod on Friday 14^th February 2025 and we had our “creative” Eisteddfod on Friday 21^st March 2025, all based on the Urdd Eisteddfod curriculum.

Points were awarded to the houses of the competitors and the scores contributed to the houses competition at the end of the school year.

The Performance Eisteddfod – Friday 14^th February 2025

For the performance Eisteddfod, we had a poetry recital competition, a music competition and a singing competition.

We were so delighted by the quality and quantity of entrants for the competition. It was extremely hard to pick winners in almost every section.

The Creative Eisteddfod – Friday 21^st March 2025

For the creative Eisteddfod, we had 8 competitions in 2D art, 2D drawing, 3D art, t-shirt design, photography, jewellery making, upcycling and puppet making. Again, the entries were excellent.

When the points for both competitions were added up, an overall winner was announced. In the end, the overall winners of our school Eisteddfod were Tegid! Llongyfarchiadau, Tegid!

Those children who came 1st, 2nd or 3rd in our school eisteddfod were eligible to enter the local area Urdd eisteddfod. The "Eisteddfod Cylch Treffynnon" took place at Ysgol Gwynedd and children competed against children from English-medium schools from Flint, Holywell and the surrounding areas. We were delighted to have three children who came either first or second in the cylch and so went to the "Sir", the regional competition at Wrexham's William Aston Hall. We were so proud of the children who performed confidently and clearly and with great character. Da iawn, pawb!

Cymraeg Campus

The Cymraeg Campus Language Charter has been created to develop Welsh in English medium schools.

We have a Criw Cymraeg, which is made of children from each class who encourage us to speak Welsh in school. They teach us the Brawddeg yr Wythnos each week so that we can practise using our Welsh.

We were extremely proud to be awarded the bronze Cymraeg Campus award in June 2025. This was based on us achieving the following ten targets:

A visual Welsh ethos is beginning to be established
A majority of the pupils have an understanding and respect for the culture and language
Pupils are beginning to speak Welsh in a variety of situations within their classrooms
Pupils are beginning to speak Welsh in a variety of situations outside their classrooms
There is a weekly Welsh assembly
Pupils are encouraged to use Apps and websites to learn Welsh
The school organises some enrichment activities to develop pupils use and enjoyment of Welsh
Welsh guided reading groups are held fortnightly
Aspects of one subject is beginning to be taught through the medium of Welsh
A majority of the pupils have a positive attitude towards learning Welsh

Some useful Welsh resources online:

Learn Welsh https://www.learn-welsh.net/

Welsh in the early years: https://www.meithrin.cymru/games/

From the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zqsv7p3

From S4C: https://www.s4c.cymru/en/dysgu-cymraeg/#